


In the Beginning

by jungleo (softcell)



Series: Timeline [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-05
Updated: 2014-11-05
Packaged: 2018-02-24 05:06:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2569226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softcell/pseuds/jungleo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You are born in July when the sun is hottest and the air smells of salt from the sweat of the people milling about the village in the summer heat. You are your mother's baby boy and your father's second son. To your brother, you are the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> it's ending and i'm having strong feelings about everything

You are born in July when the sun is hottest and the air smells of salt from the sweat of the people milling about the village in the summer heat. You are your mother's baby boy and your father's second son. To your brother, you are the world. He watches you whenever you are around, making sure you are always well fed and entertained. While your mother is resting and your father is at work, your brother becomes your everything. He will soon become your world.

When you are 3 months old, the air slowly starts to cool and the leaves begin to change color. It is during this time that your life will change forever. The demon beast with nine tails and the form of a fox is unleashed by a man everyone thinks is dead, and wrecks havoc on the village. Many die even though the shinobi of the Leaf swarm the creature in order to protect the people from its devastation. But the Will of Fire is strong in the Yondaime Hokage, and despite his young age, he has the wisdom of his predecessors. He and his wife sacrifice their lives to protect the village and seal a part of their chakra into their newly born son, along with the Nine Tailed Fox. The Sandaime Hokage is reinstated and is left to care for the child until he is older. Although the destruction is great and the death toll is massive, it is not the disaster that will change your life. It is the boy.  
But you will not know this until much later.

Years pass and you have long since learned to walk and talk. Your brother is your world although your cousin Shisui might be a close second. You strive to live up to your brother's legacy, to prove to him that you are old enough to learn your clan's jutsus, to prove to your mother that she has two wonderful sons, to prove to your clan that you are worthy of the Uchiha name, to prove to your father that you are his son. You constantly hassle you brother to teach you new jutsus and practice with you. He smiles and continues to pacify you by indulging in your antics. Together with Shisui, the two of them play with you outside, throwing kunai and shuriken, showing off their Katons, teaching you different katas, poking your forehead, and relentlessly teasing and encouraging you until one day it all stops. It's no longer the three of you, and you ask your brother where your cousin is the first time he doesn't show up. He turns away and you know something is wrong. You ask him if he will teach you a new jutsu today but he shakes his head and tells you to wait until next time.  
It is the first time he does not poke your forehead.  
News travels fast in your clan, and rumors of the evolution of the Sharingan are dragged to the surface along with Shisui's body in the water. When you hear the news you refuse to come out of the room. The neighbors whisper about how his eyes were missing, and silently start to avoid your brother in the streets. Your anger surges because you know your brother loved Shisui more than almost anything in the world, and you wonder how people can be so cruel. Your brother withdraws into himself, and although you see the signs you don't understand how to help him. Distraction comes in the form of your father. Uchiha Fugaku is an impressive man with an ominous aura and an intimidating face. For the first time, he takes you out by himself and teaches you your first Katon jutsu. You are elated and you start to believe that maybe your father has finally acknowledged you. You practice and practice until your throat is sore and your chakra reserves are almost completely used up. He watches you perform the Katon one day, and you put everything you can into it, producing a fireball greater than any of your previous ones, and you smile when you realize it's bigger than any Katon your brother has ever made. You turn to your father, but when he praises you his eyes are dull and full of sadness. Your heart aches and you wonder if you will ever be able to compare to your brother.  
And then the beginning of the end comes.  
There is nothing particularly off about the day when it happens. Your brother has already left to perform his duties as an ANBU (just one more thing for you to live up to), and you leave for the Academy. Your mother Mikoto tells you to have fun and waves as you rush to class. To have fun is not a concept that exists for you unless you are with your brother. But he has become more reserved and his smiles appear less often than they used to. You arrive on time and manage to ignore the majority of girls who fawn over you and the boys who are wrestling with each other nearby. You are not interested in them because they act like children even though they should start acting to be like shinobi. (You do not realize that you too act like a child, even if only around your mother and brother). Even after class you continue to practice until the sun goes down. You hurry home, wondering what your mother has prepared for dinner. You turn the corner to enter your clan's compound when it happens. The smell is the first thing to hit you. The smell of iron is ripe in the air, strong enough for you to taste the metallic tang on your tongue as it fills your lungs with each breath you take. You choke on the air and take a few steps forward, stopping when you see the cause of the stench.  
Blood.  
It's everywhere and on everything. The walls and the ground are painted red, a deep dark crimson, a color that should never be seen in such extreme amounts. Your eyes are shocked by the obscene amount of gore that you almost completely ignore the dead bodies from which the liquid came. Your muscles are frozen and your body has seized up. The entire compound is stained in blood and covered in bodies; the lady who used to give you a treat when you were coming home from the Academy, a distant relative who let you play with their cats, the man who used to give you shuriken to practice with all lay silent and unmoving. You stand stock still, mind empty and blank, when the image of your brother crosses your mind along with your parents. Your feet begin to move and you sprint towards your home. 'Please,' you think, 'let them be okay. Let my mother be okay, let my father be okay. Let my brother be safe'. You run until you feel like your heart is threatening to burst out of your chest as you tear down your street and crash into your house. You peek through the door to the main living room and you feel your blood run cold. Your parents are still alive, but not for long. You look up and you see the culprit and you feel your heart sink into your stomach, tightening in fear and confusion, and for the first time in your life you experience the worst feeling you will ever have: betrayal. Because the culprit is someone you know very well, the culprit is someone you trusted, someone you looked up too, someone you relied on. Someone you loved. Your mother tells you to run right before her soul leaves her body along with your father's, but you remain unmoving, unable to tear your wide eyes away from the murderer standing above your parents bodies. He looks at you and does not say anything as you stare at him in disbelief and horror. He speaks to you and the words he says will haunt you for most of your life. The man who was once the person you wanted to become is now the person you must kill for the sake of your family and your clan. The person you loved the most is now the person you hate the most, the man you will waste most of your life chasing and trying to destroy. It is the first time you have become so overcome with a rush of so many emotions, and it is the first time you activate the Sharingan.  
It is the first time you stop thinking of him as your brother, and the first time you think of him as Itachi.


End file.
